Morning Digest: Dec. 4, 2012

TRENTON – After months of debate New Jersey lawmakers have voted to send a proposal to Gov. Chris Christie’s desk that would raise the state’s minimum wage.

Assembly lawmakers voted 44-31-1 Monday along party lines to release a proposal that would increase the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 and link future increases to annual cost of living increases. The bill cleared the Senate floor last week and is now on its way to the governor, who has cast much doubt over putting his signature on anything that calls for automatic increases. Arco, State Street Wire

TRENTON – A bill addressing concerns about the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey passed in the Assembly today.

A2166 requires the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to transmit the minutes of its meetings to the Legislatures of New York and New Jersey for review and approval. Either Legislature may disapprove the minutes within 10 business days of receipt of the transmission. It passed 44-31. State Street Wire

EAST RUTHERFORD – The mayors of Moonachie and Little Ferry, two working-class and blue-collar towns in Bergen County, suffered extensive damage from superstorm Sandy, saying many municipal properties, schools, and emergency vehicles were damaged.

They are calling on FEMA to provide more funding in order to relieve taxpayers of bigger financial burdens, which they told a Senate Budget Committee are already being incurred in the rebuilding Hassan, State Street Wire

TRENTON – Supporters are coming to the aid of the Good Samaritan bill.

Parents who lost their children to drug overdoses joined Monday alongside other supporters of the bill that would protect people from criminal liability who seek medical help for others suffering a drug overdose. Arco, State Street Wire

TRENTON – Legislation that would increase the state’s minimum wage is on its way to the governor’s desk, but it won’t be the last time before the end of the year Assembly lawmakers vote on such a proposal.

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver told reporters Monday, shortly after the lower chamber voted 44-31 with one abstention, by Ronald Dancer, R-30, Plumsted, to send a proposal to Gov. Chris Christie, that the Assembly will be voting on a proposed constitutional amendment in the coming weeks. Arco, State Street Wire

Late Sunday night, state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-18) landed in Los Angeles in time for the start of today’s Democratic Governors Association (DGA) conference.

Buono is trying to get national level support toward a 2013 gubernatorial run with the group that recruits Democratic candidates for governor. Pizarro, PolitickerNJ

Christie requests fed approval of 100% reimbursement of Sandy costs

Governor Chris Christie today announced that he has formally requested federal approval of 100% reimbursement for state and local government costs associated with debris removal and emergency protective measures that continue in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

In a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate, Governor Christie stated that the financial and economic hardships brought by the storm and its associated clean up burden have become untenable for the state and communities alike. To offer relief and ensure that these priority operations continue in hard-hit communities across New Jersey, the Governor requested that FEMA exercise its broad authority to implement 100% federal assistance for these costs for a period of at least 90 days. PolitickerNJ

Several prominent conservative organizations lashed out against a pair of decisions by Speaker John Boehner’s leadership team as House Republicans saw their tightly held grip on the right loosen a bit on Monday.

Heritage Action, long a thorn in the side of the House Republican leadership, told its members in an email that Boehner was asking his “members to go back on their promise not to raise taxes on the American people” by putting $800 billion in new revenue into the mix of the negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff. Sherman/Bresnahan, Politico

Prime Healthcare Services, the for-profit hospital chain that won the bidding for St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic last week, withdrew from an agreement to buy another hospital in New Jersey earlier this year after pointed questions by the state Department of Health, the Attorney General’s Office and local opponents.

The New Jersey regulators asked Prime to explain its track record as the owner of 12 hospitals in California, focusing on how its rates of emergency-room admissions and diagnoses for conditions such as acute heart failure compared with California’s statewide averages, in an effort to see if the chain was attempting to boost profits. Washburn/Layton, Record

PRINCETON BOROUGH – What does a government built from scratch look like?

Tonight, members of the public, Princeton officials and the transitional task force got a good look as a presentation outlining the year-long work to consolidate the two Princetons was presented in its preliminary form, followed by a public question and answer session. Offredo, Trenton Times

LONG BEACH, N.Y. — Surfers railed against the project because they said it would interfere with the curl of the waves. Local businesses reliant on beach tourism hated it, too. Who would flock to the historic Boardwalk, they asked, if sand dunes were engineered to rise up and obscure the ocean view? Navarro/Nuwer, N.Y. Times

Fed up with not being able to take the PATH into or out of New York after 10 p.m., some commuters have created an online protest to urge the Port Authority via Twitter, Facebook and Change.org to restore late-night service on the trains. McDonald, Jersey Journal

GOP opposition to Medicaid expansion may be preview of governor’s stance

While the state Senate voted on Nov. 29 to urge Gov. Chris Christie to expand eligibility for Medicaid enrollment in the state, the votes against the measure may be more telling than the votes for it. Kitchenman, NJ Spotlight

A firm that has managed Boardwalk Hall and the Atlantic City Convention Center for nearly two decades has filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority, claiming the agency used faulty procurement practices.

SMG, based in West Conshohocken, Pa., filed its lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Nov. 30. Its claims are centered on a request for proposals issued in August seeking a firm to manage the two Atlantic City facilities. SMG, the facilities’ operator since 1992, currently holds a contract for the work, which expires on Dec. 31. Bogdan, Atlantic City Press

With water and wind, Hurricane Sandy flattened New Jersey’s coastline and pushed damage farther and wider than any storm ever before. More than a month has passed, and we’re still taking stock of the wreckage. Star-Ledger